


Bedtime

by cheshireArcher



Category: Richard II - Shakespeare
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Cuddling & Snuggling, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Richard and Ed are Isabelle's gay dads, Unofficial Family, hunting manuals count as bedtime reading right, the white hart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 16:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15052904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheshireArcher/pseuds/cheshireArcher
Summary: Aumerle and Queen Isabelle wait for Richard to come to bed.





	Bedtime

**Author's Note:**

> Finally I'm back to writing, somewhat! A sort of unofficial sequel to a fic TheMalhamBird wrote for me a while back about little Isabelle coming to sleep with Richard and Aumerle after a nightmare. This doesn't take place in our AU where Richard is the white hart/nature god/etc., just human.
> 
> (Yes, I know the anachronism. I'm not going to let it ruin my fluff. Shut up.)

Edward heard the door creak open. He looked up from his writing to see the queen, Isabelle, standing in the doorway. It was a little past her bedtime, though it was wishful thinking for her to be asleep. The mind of a seven-year-old never rested. 

"Isabelle? Why are you up, your majesty?" He asked, sitting up properly.

"Can't sleep," she replied. "Where is Dickon?"

"I was wondering that myself," Edward said. He beckoned her to join him. "Hasn't he been in to see you?" Every night, King Richard went to check on Isabelle before he retired to his own chambers.

"No."

"He must still be in a meeting with our uncles." He knew Isabelle wasn't going to leave. She must be concerned since Richard hadn't been in to see her. She'd been in England for a year now and the initial homesickness and fear were wearing off, and she'd become thoroughly attached to Richard, who loved that, and by extension Edward, who was still somewhat confused about what to do with children. "How about we wait together for him," Edward offered. Isabelle gladly took the invitation and scrambled up on the bed next to him. 

"What are you writing?" She asked, peering at the book in his lap.

"I'm translating a book, actually," Edward replied. "And editing it. It's the  _Livre de chasse."_

" _The Book of the Hunt,_ " Isabelle said. Her English was improving. She was a very smart girl and learned quickly.

"Very good! Yes. I also plan on adding some chapters."

"Is it fun?" 

"I suppose so," Edward replied. "My French isn't as good as it should be though, so I'm very slow. Dickon helps me then."

"What are you writing about now?" Isabelle asked.

"Deer. Specifically, stags. Uh,  _cerf_." He picked up his French copy and turned a few pages to a picture of a stag. 

"Like Dickon!" Her eyes lit up. She very much liked the king's royal badge of a chained white stag.

"His is a very special stag," Edward said. "It's the white hart. There are a lot of stories about him, even one with King Arthur."

"What happens when you hunt the white hart?" Isabelle asked.

"Well, some say the white hart appears when there's trouble ahead," Edward replied. "He warns you so you stay safe when something bad is about to happen. So some people say he's a harbinger of doom."

"Then I don't want to see him," Isabelle said.

"Now, wait. That's not the only reason the hart appears," Edward replied. "In the story with King Arthur, you can hunt it, but you can never catch it. Some people think that's kind of like our spiritual journey, with God. And it's a sign of of his knights has to go on a quest. And in other versions, it's said he comes to rescue lost travelers. So you may want to see him."

"Have you ever seen the white hart?" Isabelle asked. By now she had curled up next to Edward, and he'd put an arm around her. 

"Just once," he replied. "When I was much younger..."

Soon Isabelle had fallen asleep.

Edward began dozing too when he heard the door open and close, and Richard-- he always could sense Richard's gait-- sat down on his side of the bed, which put Isabelle in the middle. 

"We were waiting for you," Edward mumbled. 

"You didn't have to," Richard replied. "Our uncles had quite a lot to say to us." He looked down. "You've bored her to sleep?"

"No," Edward replied indignantly, but he realized Richard was teasing him. 

Richard rectified it by carefully leaning past Isabelle to press a kiss on Edward's lips. They parted and Richard looked down at the child curled up between them. "She is a wonderful girl, our Isabelle," he said, with all the love and pride of a father speaking of his daughter. 

Edward moved his books off the bed and climbed in under the blankets properly, careful not to wake Isabelle. Richard pulled the other part of the blanket over Isabelle and himself and he wrapped his arm around the girl he had come to see as his daughter and the man he had come to see as his husband to sleep in warmth and safety.


End file.
